The epidemiologic and etiologic features of cases of pneumonia among 1
,740 children admitted to a teaching hospital in Hong Kong over a 3-ye
ar period were studied. Of the patients, 23% were <1 year old and 69%
were <5 years old. The incidence of pneumonia requiring admission to t
he hospital was 6.4 episodes per 1,000 children per year for those <5
years of age. The overall case fatality rate was 0.15% among patients
who did not have severe underlying disease before contracting pneumoni
a. A bacterial etiology was confirmed by blood culture for only 2% of
patients. However, culture of sputum or nasopharyngeal aspirates yield
ed predominant or pure growth of one bacterial agent in 17% of cases.
Haemophilus influenzae was the bacterial agent most frequently isolate
d from nasopharyngeal aspirates or sputum, followed by Streptococcus p
neumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus. Of the H. influenzae isolates, 38
% were resistant to ampicillin. A viral etiology was proven in 9.1% of
cases, and evidence of mycoplasmal infection was found in 3.8% of cas
es. Respiratory syncytial virus was the most frequently identified vir
al agent, followed by adenovirus and influenza A virus.